Andrew May's Forteana Blog, focusing on the weirder fringes of history (and other old-fashioned stuff)

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Tuesday, 1 February 2011

UFO detector

Here is a schematic diagram of a UFO detector from the September/October 1968 issue of Flying Saucer Review (which I purchased a few years ago for considerably more than the "five shillings" cover price). Actually it's a magnetic field detector, but apparently UFOs do generate really big magnetic fields. The article implies a value of 1 gauss (about twice the Earth's magnetic field) at a slant range of 1 to 3 miles from "a small craft".

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Boffins were also trying to detect UFOs through the television set around this time. There's an advert for these circuit diagrams (reproduced from the March 1971 issue of the British 'Practical Wireless' magazine) on the ORB Editions website (article 24 SEP 09) here: http://www.okok.org.uk/News/News2010-2008/newspage2010_2008.htm

Excellent suggestion, Natalie! When I first saw your comment (bear in mind it's over 3 years since the original post) I wasn't sure what you were talking about, but then I reread the comment thread and realized you were answering Nick's question "Where are you going to find that 10k ohm pick-up coil?" You're probably right that a guitar pickup would do the job... assuming anyone really does want to make a 1960s-era UFO detector!

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About Me

I have more than 25 years of experience working in academia, government and the private sector. As an author, I have produced a volume of "Bloody British History" for the History Press, e-books about military history for Bretwalda Books and several short pieces for "Fortean Times" magazine. I hold an M.A. in natural sciences from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Manchester University.